Book Title: Jaina Philosophy
Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi, Kumarpal Desai
Publisher: World Jain Confederation

Previous | Next

Page 54
________________ The History and Tenets of the Jainas of India their being priestesses, there is not one women priest from Himalayas to Cape Comoro. If the present abuses in India have been produced by the Hindu religion, the same religion had the strength of producing a society which made the Greek Historian say, "No Hindu was ever known to tell an untruth, no Hindu women ever known to be unchaste," and even in the present day, where is the chaste women or milder man than in India? In the last place I am very, very sorry for those who criticize the great ones of India, and my only consolation is that all their information about them has come from third hand, fourth hand sources, percolating through layers of superstition and bigotry. To those who find in the refused of the Hindu to criticize the character of Jesus tacit acceptation of the superiority of the fanatical nil admirer cult they represent, I am tempted to quote the old fable of Aesop and tell them "Not to you I bend the knee but to the image you are carrying on your back; and to point out to them one page from the life of the great Emperor Akbar. A certain ship full of Mohammedan pilgrims was going to Mecca. On its way a Portuguese vessel captured it, amongst the booty were some copies of the Koran. The Portuguese hanged these copies of the Koran round the necks of dogs and paraded these dogs through the streets of Ormuz. It happened that this very Portuguese ship was captured by the emperor's men, and in it were found some copies of the Bible. The love of Akbar for his mother is well-known and his mother was a zealous Mohammedan. It pained her very much to hear of the treatment of the sacred hook of the Mohammedans in the hands of Christians and she wished that Akbar would do the same with the Bible but this great man replied, "Mother, these ignorant men do not know the value of the Koran, and they treated it in a manner which is the outcome of ignorance. But I know the glory * 45 Jain Education International For Personal & Private Use Only www.jainelibrary.org

Loading...

Page Navigation
1 ... 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298